With the shift in recent years towards data being sent and received electronically, the last several decades have experienced a dramatic increase in the availability of devices to handle this data. For example, user devices, e.g., personal computers, laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, etc., have become widely available for occupational as well as at-home use. As a result of the abundance of data, as well as concerns over data security, it is common for individuals to own separate devices for personal and work-related matters, sometimes owning more than one of each device.
Occasionally, however, data cannot immediately be stored in the originally intended device. In some cases, the target device is unavailable, under maintenance, or being used by another party. In other cases, the data can be too large to store in the target device, or the target device may not run the proper programs that work with the data. In the case of sensitive or private data, the target device may not have sufficient security settings to store personal data thereon. In such cases, the data may be stored to a backup device, a hard drive, or, as often happens, to multiple devices to prevent against data corruption or mistaken deletion, only to be transferred at a later time. While awaiting transfer, a version of the data can be accessed or modified without updating the backup location, which may result in different versions of the same file stored on multiple devices that need to be redistributed throughout the multiple devices.
Although advances have been made in content collaboration and data sharing, existing systems and methods for promulgating data have numerous shortcomings. Establishing data synchronization between multiple devices increases the potential for security risks and data theft. Further, synchronizing data across a large number of devices can exhaust storage space, which may already be limited in some thin-client devices. For example, synchronizing data between a smartphone with a laptop can quickly exhaust the smartphone's storage space, thus ending the data synchronization prematurely. Lastly, current solutions for sharing data between devices can be complex and lack ease of use. Sharing a file from one device to another, e.g., AirDrop, etc., can require multiple steps such as signing on to the same network on both devices, selecting the file, selecting a receiver device, approving a connection to the source device on the receiver device, and accepting the file sharing. This process must also be repeated for each additional device with which the file is shared.
Accordingly, there is a continual need for systems and methods that can improve the ease of data synchronization/connection between devices and seamlessly mediate data sharing therebetween.